In Climate Move, Administration to Halt New Coal Mining Leases on Public Lands is an off kilter way of announcing the production slowdown of a product nobody wants. Fracked natural gas is normally cheaper than coal, but if you make available public lands to strip mine at a fraction of its historical value you can make coal cheap enough to compete, but for what purpose? To keep a few people employed wielding giant machines that destroys the land? The analysis of energy production requires a rigorous examination of all costs to determine the greater good. Coal fails miserably in comparison to gas, when considering the scarred land and despoiling rivers of ash that utilities gather after burning.
Another example of Public Land spoiled for a mind bogglingly awful result is Canada's money losing and energy consuming coal tar sands projects scarring its land and polluting our air yet which still operate because private interests lack the courage to admit the sunken costs are irretrievable.
Monday January 18 note: The pain of denial has reached a point where the price is $8 a barrel for Canadian Tar Sands Crude with a trend for producers having to pay for the crude they produce to be taken away.
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